Peyton Manning Children's Hospital Receives Grant from
the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation for Healing Arts

On Saturday, August 24, 2019, Dr. Hossain M. Marandi, President of Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, and Kaitlin Knapp, Manager of the Healing Arts program at Ascension St. Vincent received a grant from the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation benefiting Healing Arts Program at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital during the 101st Annual American Legion Convention.

We began the program in 2017 because we believe that Creative Arts Therapies are inherently healing and life enhancing. For young patients, the ability to express feelings through art is essential in communicating important needs such as comfort, reassurance, and support. We can also use healing arts as a tool to help with medical treatment.

“In addition to providing the nation’s top physicians, state-of-the-art equipment, and cutting-edge treatments, Healing Arts at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital helps us meet our mission to provide compassionate and holistic health to the patients and families in our care,” said Dr. Marandi. “Research shows that integrating creative arts therapies into medical treatment plans results in quicker healing, reduced need for medication, and shorter hospital stays. Integrating this innovative approach into care plans at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital helps provide the highest quality of compassionate and holistic care to our patients.”

For example, in the cases of children receiving end of life care, we compassionately support the spiritual wellbeing of patient families with wrap-around services. To help parents cope with the loss of a precious child, Healing Arts Music Therapists record a child’s heartbeat and use it as a rhythmic foundation for a song to honor the child’s life. When this service is requested, Healing Arts therapists connect with families to learn about songs that helped them through their medical journeys – lullabies or other songs of struggle, love, and perseverance – to use for the final recording. The resulting song is sent home with the family to help them remember, honor, and continue to love their children.

We extend our gratitude to American Legion Child Welfare Foundation for their generous support of the Healing Arts Program at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital.

To learn about other opportunities to support the patients and families at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, please visit our website at give.stvincent.org/peytonmanning